Kevin Coyne

Who was Kevin Coyne?

Kevin Coyne was a musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The former "anti-star" was born on 27 January 1944 in Derby, UK, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, on 2 December 2004.

Coyne is notable for his unorthodox style of blues-influenced guitar composition, the intense quality of his vocal delivery, and his bold treatment of injustice to the mentally ill in his lyrics. Many influential music figures have described themselves as Coyne fans, among them Sting and John Lydon. In the mid-1970s, prior to the formation of The Police, Coyne's band included guitarist Andy Summers. Prominent BBC disc jockey and world music authority Andy Kershaw has described Coyne as "a national treasure who keeps getting better" and as one of the great British blues voices.

Over many years Coyne produced the distinctive art work for many of his own album covers, but his move to Germany in the 1980s saw his work on full size paintings blossom in its own right.